Chevron, Total, PetroChina may develop Iraq's Majnoon oilfield

VIENNA (Reuters) - Chevron, Total and PetroChina may form a consortium to develop Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield which Royal Dutch Shell wants to exit, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in Vienna on Thursday.

The logo of Total oil company is pictured in Abuja, Nigeria October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Shell plans to exit Majnoon and hand over its operation to state-run Basra Oil Co. by the end of June 2018.

Iraq is developing the Majnoon field, which currently produces around 235,000 barrels of oil per day, by itself until it can find a foreign partner.

Luaibi said in October that Iraq might offer Chevron and Total terms to develop the Majnoon oilfield that were different to those given to Shell, which has said it wants to leave because of unfavourable changes to fiscal terms.

Iraq expects its refining capacity to increase by 100,000 barrels per day by mid-2018 with the rehabilitation of two refineries retaken from the Islamic State.

The rehabilitation of Kisik refinery, near Mosul, should add 30,000 bpd in processing capacity before the end of the year, and Salahuddin 70,000 bpd within six months, he said.

Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans